The Boks will comfortably beat Samoa by 20-plus points. Samoa were surprisingly good against Italy in scoring five tries to one and winning by 39-10. The Boks won 44-10 against the same team a week ago.

This would suggest there will only be a score in Saturday’s one-off against Samoa in Pretoria, but the Boks are five points better than Samoa and in Pretoria they will triumph by at least 20 points.

The Test will be something similar to when the Bulls played the Hurricanes. The Samoans will be physical in the tackle but they don’t have the physicality at the gain line that we saw from the Samoan team that ran the Boks close at the 2011 World Cup.

Samoa’s best run on XV is an improvement from what has toured here previously but it is still not good enough to challenge the Boks.

The Boks could have been excused for playing only in patches to beat Italy and Scotland but coach Heyneke Meyer and the South African rugby public will rightly expect a more comprehensive and comforting performance in Pretoria.

The All Blacks will be 15 points too strong for the French in New Plymouth. The stuffing was knocked out of the French in Christchurch and this match won’t have the intensity of the first two Tests. Both teams will play with a positive attitude. The All Blacks have made five changes and the French have made eight.

It is a dead rubber in the context of the three-Test series.

In the weekend’s premier game Australia will beat the British and Irish Lions by five to seven points.

The match is being played in Brisbane and Australia traditionally have had the edge over Wales in Australia, even if only just. The Lions are made up largely of Welsh players and the Wallabies, despite losing several players to injury, are still good enough to beat the tourists who have suffered because of a lack of preparation when it comes to facing quality opposition.

The Lions tour will then go into free fall and the Wallabies will take the series 3-0.